Tablets, laptops, phones (e.g., cellular or satellite), mobile (vehicular) or portable (personal) two-way radios, and other communication devices are now in common use by users, such as first responders (including firemen, police officers, and paramedics, among others), and provide such users and others with instant access to increasingly valuable additional information and resources such as vehicle histories, arrest records, outstanding warrants, health information, real-time traffic or other situational status information, and any other information that may aid the user in making a more informed determination of an action to take or how to resolve a situation, among other possibilities.
Many such communication devices further comprise, or provide access to, electronic digital assistants (or sometimes referenced as “virtual partners”) that may provide the user thereof with valuable information in an automated (e.g., without further user input) and/or semi-automated (e.g., with some further user input) fashion. The valuable information provided to the user may be based on explicit requests for such information posed by the user via an input (e.g., such as a parsed natural language input or an electronic touch interface manipulation associated with an explicit request) in which the electronic digital assistant may reactively provide such requested valuable information, or may be based on some other set of one or more context or triggers in which the electronic digital assistant may proactively provide such valuable information to the user absent any explicit request from the user.
As some existing examples, electronic digital assistants such as Sid provided by Apple, Inc.® and Google Now provided by Google, Inc.®, are software applications running on underlying electronic hardware that are capable of understanding natural language, and may complete electronic tasks in response to user voice inputs, among other additional or alternative types of inputs. These electronic digital assistants may perform such tasks as taking and storing voice dictation for future reference and retrieval, reading a received text message or an e-mail message aloud, generating a text message or e-mail message reply, looking up requested phone numbers and initiating a phone call to a requested contact, generating calendar appointments and providing appointment reminders, instructing users how to proceed with an assigned task, warning users of nearby dangers such as traffic accidents or environmental hazards, and providing many other types of information in a reactive or proactive manner.
Oftentimes a user may ask multiple queries to their digital assistant in a short period of time. The queries may be independent from each other (different questions) or may be related to a prior query. After receiving a query, a virtual partner takes time to process the query, search through a potential massive public safety database, and construct natural language to response to the user. If, before the virtual partner responds to a query, a user sends a subsequent second or third query, the user might get confused as to whether a response/answer is to the first, second or third query, since the answer to the second or third query may come prior to the answer to the first query.
Furthermore, if the user wants to append to, or amend a particular query (e.g. ask a further follow-up question related to the particular query), there is no technique to accomplish that except for the user to at least repeating subject matter of the particular query. For example, if one asks “Where is my car parked?”, and then asks, “What is the high temperature going to be today?”, the person will get two responses from their virtual partner. For example, the person may get an answer, “spot 213”, and an answer “25 degrees”. The person then wants to ask a follow up question “In Chicago?”. But what query does it attach to? Is the person asking “is my car parked in Chicago?” or is the person asking “Is the high temperature for Chicago?” Currently, digital assistants have no way of knowing what query the follow-up question applies to.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.